It was the longest day of the state exams, with some Leaving Certificate students spending six hours and 20 minutes in the hall.

But any pre-exam nerves about what lay in store in the afternoon's much-anticipated English Paper 2 were quickly dispelled. One teacher said the higher-level paper was a "dream".

Today, most of the 117,000 candidates at Leaving and Junior Cert level, face the first of the Maths papers. This is the first year that all Junior Cert students will be examined in at least some elements of the Project Maths syllabus. Those sitting the Leaving Cert will be answering questions from the new syllabus for the second year.